Death \Death\ (d[e^]th), n. [OE. deth, dea[eth], AS.
   de['a][eth]; akin to OS. d[=o][eth], D. dood, G. tod, Icel.
   dau[eth]i, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, Goth. dau[thorn]us; from a verb
   meaning to die. See Die, v. i., and cf. Dead.]
   1. The cessation of all vital phenomena without capability of
      resuscitation, either in animals or plants.
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   Note: Local death is going on at all times and in all parts
         of the living body, in which individual cells and
         elements are being cast off and replaced by new; a
         process essential to life. General death is of two
         kinds; death of the body as a whole (somatic or
         systemic death), and death of the tissues. By the
         former is implied the absolute cessation of the
         functions of the brain, the circulatory and the
         respiratory organs; by the latter the entire
         disappearance of the vital actions of the ultimate
         structural constituents of the body. When death takes
         place, the body as a whole dies first, the death of the
         tissues sometimes not occurring until after a
         considerable interval. --Huxley.
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   2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the
      death of memory.
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            The death of a language can not be exactly compared
            with the death of a plant.            --J. Peile.
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   3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life.
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            A death that I abhor.                 --Shak.
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            Let me die the death of the righteous. --Num. xxiii.
                                                  10.
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   4. Cause of loss of life.
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            Swiftly flies the feathered death.    --Dryden.
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            He caught his death the last county sessions.
                                                  --Addison.
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   5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally
      represented as a skeleton with a scythe.
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            Death! great proprietor of all.       --Young.
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            And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name
            that sat on him was Death.            --Rev. vi. 8.
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   6. Danger of death. "In deaths oft." --2 Cor. xi. 23.
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   7. Murder; murderous character.
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            Not to suffer a man of death to live. --Bacon.
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   8. (Theol.) Loss of spiritual life.
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            To be carnally minded is death.       --Rom. viii.
                                                  6.
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   9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death.
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            It was death to them to think of entertaining such
            doctrines.                            --Atterbury.
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            And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto
            death.                                --Judg. xvi.
                                                  16.
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   Note: Death is much used adjectively and as the first part of
         a compound, meaning, in general, of or pertaining to
         death, causing or presaging death; as, deathbed or
         death bed; deathblow or death blow, etc.
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   Black death. See Black death, in the Vocabulary.

   Civil death, the separation of a man from civil society, or
      the debarring him from the enjoyment of civil rights, as
      by banishment, attainder, abjuration of the realm,
      entering a monastery, etc. --Blackstone.

   Death adder. (Zool.)
      (a) A kind of viper found in South Africa (Acanthophis
          tortor); -- so called from the virulence of its
          venom.
      (b) A venomous Australian snake of the family
          Elapid[ae], of several species, as the
          Hoplocephalus superbus and Acanthopis antarctica.
          

   Death bell, a bell that announces a death.
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            The death bell thrice was heard to ring. --Mickle.

   Death candle, a light like that of a candle, viewed by the
      superstitious as presaging death.

   Death damp, a cold sweat at the coming on of death.

   Death fire, a kind of ignis fatuus supposed to forebode
      death.
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            And round about in reel and rout,
            The death fires danced at night.      --Coleridge.

   Death grapple, a grapple or struggle for life.

   Death in life, a condition but little removed from death; a
      living death. [Poetic] "Lay lingering out a five years'
      death in life." --Tennyson.

   Death rate, the relation or ratio of the number of deaths
      to the population.
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            At all ages the death rate is higher in towns than
            in rural districts.                   --Darwin.

   Death rattle, a rattling or gurgling in the throat of a
      dying person.

   Death's door, the boundary of life; the partition dividing
      life from death.

   Death stroke, a stroke causing death.

   Death throe, the spasm of death.

   Death token, the signal of approaching death.

   Death warrant.
      (a) (Law) An order from the proper authority for the
          execution of a criminal.
      (b) That which puts an end to expectation, hope, or joy.
          

   Death wound.
      (a) A fatal wound or injury.
      (b) (Naut.) The springing of a fatal leak.

   Spiritual death (Scripture), the corruption and perversion
      of the soul by sin, with the loss of the favor of God.

   The gates of death, the grave.
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            Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? --Job
                                                  xxxviii. 17.

   The second death, condemnation to eternal separation from
      God. --Rev. ii. 11.

   To be the death of, to be the cause of death to; to make
      die. "It was one who should be the death of both his
      parents." --Milton.

   Syn: Death, Decease, Demise, Departure, Release.

   Usage: Death applies to the termination of every form of
          existence, both animal and vegetable; the other words
          only to the human race. Decease is the term used in
          law for the removal of a human being out of life in
          the ordinary course of nature. Demise was formerly
          confined to decease of princes, but is now sometimes
          used of distinguished men in general; as, the demise
          of Mr. Pitt. Departure and release are peculiarly
          terms of Christian affection and hope. A violent death
          is not usually called a decease. Departure implies a
          friendly taking leave of life. Release implies a
          deliverance from a life of suffering or sorrow.
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